Research into the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive movement disorder which affects approx-imately 2% of people over age 65. It is characterised by slowness of movement, tremors, rigidity and postural instability, along with a range of non-motor effects, and it currently has no cure.The effects of Parkinson’s are due to neurodegeneration and the loss of movement-controlling neurotransmitters in the mid-brain. Unfortunately, by the time that Parkinson’s has been diagnosed, 60%–70% of those neurons have already been lost. DiagnosisAt present, diagnosis of Parkinson’s relies entirely on observation of movement, such as walking gait, hand movement and tremors by a specialist clinicician. There is no diagnostic test as such - accurate diagnosis is heavily dependent on the experience of the clinician; there is a high rate of misdiagnosis (upwards of 25%); and typically people have the disease for many years before it is diagnosed. In the future, neuroprotective treatments and medications may be developed which slow the disease progression. However, in order to be effective, any neuroprotective therapy will need to start early, before there is significant neuron loss.This highlights the need for a more accurate way of diagnosing Parkinson’s in its early stages.

This project

The aim is to develop an accurate, simple-to-use, non-invasive diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Once developed, this KeySense®tool will be made available for use by the general population as well as health practitioners. As far back as the 19th century, telegraph operators could recognize each other through their specific tapping styles. This suggests that keystroke dynamics contain sufficient information to serve as a biometric identifier. The current phase of the project (this website) is a longitudinal study over 12 months to investigate the characteristics of typing (finger movement) and how some of these change over time in people with PD.Our previous work has already determined that such characteristics can be used to quite accurately detect the presence of PD at its early stages, and the current study is to refine those into a generally-applicable diagnostic tool.So we need a group of 300 volunteers for this phase of the research in order to gather more data.

Our Aim

This university research is to develop a tool for the early detection of Parkinson’s Disease, by util ising the characteristics of finger resp onses when typing on a computer. You can help right now by participating in the current project phase and all you need to do is install a small research app on your PC. That’s it - there is no other work involved.

Invitation

We need people in the age range of 50 to 70 to participate in this research. It is not important whether you already have PD or not, as we particularly need people without any movement disorder as a ‘control group’ - for example, a spouse or friend of a Parkinson’s-sufferer is ideal. You have shown an interest in Parkinson’s research and diagnosis by visiting this website, so we believe that you may be someone who is interested in participating further.Please get started now by installing the research app on your computer. You can also see more details here.

Checklist for eligibility

I am 50 or olderEither (a) I already have Parkinson’s Disease, or (b) I don’t, but still want to helpI use a Windows PC and use the computer regularly each month, for at least a few minutes each day e.g. for e-mails, web browsing and general typing I am the only person who uses this PC; or several of us use the PC, but we each log on with our own separate accountSince this is a research project, we ask you to read and agree to the Participant Information & Informed Consent.Who we are PDLab has been established as part of a university research study being undertaken by Warwick Adams, at Charles Sturt University, Australia.

We need your participation

Participating is really simple - just download and install a small research app (called Tappy) on your computer for 12 months. It asks you for some basic details and then starts analysing your finger responses as you type. It doesn’t affect the performance of your PC in any way and you won’t even notice it is there.

Research into the diagnosis of Parkinson’s

Disease

Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive movement disorder which affects approximately 2% of people over age 65. It is characterised by slowness of movement, tremors, rigidity and postural instability, along with a range of non-motor effects, and it currently has no cure.The effects of Parkinson’s are due to neurodegeneration and the loss of movement-controlling neurotransmitters in the mid-brain. Unfortunately, by the time that Parkinson’s has been diagnosed, 60%–70% of those neurons have already been lost. DiagnosisAt present, diagnosis of Parkinson’s relies entirely on observation of movement, such as walking gait, hand movement and tremors by a specialist clinicician. There is no diagnostic test as such - accurate diagnosis is heavily dependent on the experience of the clinician; there is a high rate of misdiagnosis (upwards of 25%); and typically people have the disease for many years before it is diagnosed. In the future, neuroprotective treatments and medications may be developed which slow the disease progression. However, in order to be effective, any neuroprotective therapy will need to start early, before there is significant neuron loss.This highlights the need for a more accurate way of diagnosing Parkinson’s in its early stages.

This project

The aim is to develop an accurate, simple-to-use, non-invasive diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Once developed, this KeySense®tool will be made available for use by the general population as well as health practitioners. As far back as the 19th century, telegraph operators could recognize each other through their specific tapping styles. This suggests that keystroke dynamics contain sufficient information to serve as a biometric identifier. The current phase of the project (this website) is a longitudinal study over 12 months to investigate the characteristics of typing (finger movement) and how some of these change over time in people with PD.Our previous work has already determined that such characteristics can be used to quite accurately detect the presence of PD at its early stages, and the current study is to refine those into a generally-applicable diagnostic tool.So we need a group of 300 volunteers for this phase of the research in order to gather more data.

PDLab | Research into better diagnostic tools for Parkinson’s|

Invitation

We need people in the age range of 50 to 70 to participate in this research. It is not important whether you already have PD or not, as we particularly need people without any movement disorder as a ‘control group’ - for example, a spouse or friend of a Parkinson’s-sufferer is ideal. You have shown an interest in Parkinson’s research and diagnosis by visiting this website, so we believe that you may be someone who is interested in participating further.Please get started now by installing the research app on your computer. You can also see more details here.

Checklist for eligibility

I am 50 or olderEither (a) I already have Parkinson’s Disease, or (b) I don’t, but still want to helpI use a Windows PC and use the computer regularly each month, for at least a few minutes each day e.g. for e-mails, web browsing and general typing I am the only person who uses this PC; or several of us use the PC, but we each log on with our own separate accountSince this is a research project, we ask you to read and agree to the Participant Information & Informed Consent.Who we are PDLab has been established as part of a university research study being undertaken by Warwick Adams, at Charles Sturt University, Australia.

Our Aim

Our goal is to develop a tool for the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, by utilising the char -acteristics of finger responses when typing on a computer. We need people (both with and without existing Parkinson’s) for this. You can help right now by participating in the current project phase and all you need to do is install a small research app on your PC.